Sunday November 20th - Monkey Business

We don't miss the alarm this morning and are first into breakfast, soon joined by the Japanese family of 4 who arrived at the same time as us yesterday. This morning we are all going to Sirena in the Corcovado National Park, an hour's boat ride along the coast west then south. Despite the early hour breakfast is good and the toast, made with home made bread, particularly so.
The boat, a smaller one called Sea Lion, turns up 20 minutes late, which gives us plenty of time to contemplate the large waves and breakers crashing on to the beach. The boat collects us and gets away again without any great drama but it is a lumpy, bumpy ride.  And then it starts to rain. D's Dry Bag gets a good workout. The last 10 minutes of the voyage are particularly bleak as we are buffeted by waves and the coast is blotted out by rain. Think "The Cruel Sea" but without Jack Hawkins on the bridge.
We land at Sirena and are greeted by a man with a rifle who adresses us in Spanish, translated by his slightly less scary female assistant. The gist is "Stick with your guide and don't break any rules." We are then allowed to wash our feet and put on hiking boots. There are quite a few different groups who have arrived in different boats. There are many envious looks at the natty leg camouflage that D has donned in order to blend in to the jungle.
This is as a result of clutching between his lower legs a Marks & Spencers carrier bag containing our walking boots. Our group is ourselves, the Japanese family and a German lady called Anya who now considers Austria to be home. Our guide is Jose who soon adds a new word to our Spanish vocabulary, "Vamos!" which means "Chalo!" * To avoid boring people too much here are a few highlight photos.
Red-tailed Squirrel ^
Three toed Sloth ^
Crested Guan ^
Capuchin Monkey ^
We saw lots of other stuff including some new birds and two other kinds of monkey, Spider and Howler. Jose was very keen to find Squirrel Monkeys, CR's least common type, found in only a few places. Eventually he succeeds.
Towards the end of our walk, as we head back to the beach, we see a family of White-nosed Coatis (Woozles) on the track ahead. 
By now the sun has broken through and we board the Sea lion in good spirits. The ride back towards Drake Bay is no less uncomfortable than the outward trip but at least we can see the coast.  Apparently this tour includes lunch at the tour company's headquarters so we sail past Caletas Lodge and reverse into the beach at Drake Bay village. As we are disembarking a big wave hits the boat and R goes full length on the floor. At least she stays dry this time but will have a couple of bruises and grazes to show for it. The meal is not a patch on the food at Caletas but there is a small supermarket next door so D can get some affordable beers for the next 36 hours. As we wrap up the meal we hear that the snorkelling trip that is scheduled for tomorrow may have to be cancelled due to the rough seas. They promise to let Yolande know.
There are no further dramas as we board the Sea Lion, then disembark at Caletas. Jose takes personal charge of getting R on and off the boat safely.
Back home we chill for a while, get our daily Duolingo fix and receive the message that the snorkelling is definitely off, but are offered a Mangrove Cruise in lieu. If it is anything like the cruise at Tarcoles this is a winner for us. The bad news is that it departs 2 hours earlier than the snorkel trip so early alarm again. Supper here is prompt at 19.00 and tonight is Sea Bream with Prawns on Pesto Pasta. It is absolutely delicious, the best meal that we have had so far in Costa Rica.

* Chalo is Hindi for "Let's go!"

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